Credit and inequality: the credit policy on the Latin American agenda

• Grant number: 21/12070-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: January 17, 2022
• End date: November 30, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Public Policies
• Principal Investigator: Marta Teresa da Silva Arretche
• Grantee: Mariana Falcão Chaise
• Supervisor: Olivier Dabene
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (Sciences Po), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 19/15010-8 - Credit and inequality: the credit policy on the Latin American agenda, BP.DR

Abstract

Credit policies for individual consumers gained centrality on the list of inclusive public policies since the 1990s. They were stimulated by the World Bank and by the United Nations and were adopted in several Latin American countries under governments of different ideological orientations. The topic, however, is understudied. The literature - strongly based on the US case - suggests that such policies reflect the conservative response to pressures for the expansion of social spending. Having credit policies also been adopted by the left in Latin America, the thesis will seek to understand the relationship between partisan action and the proposition of consumer credit policies in two aspects: in their design and in their motivations. The state of the art about the left in power suggests that it does not differ from the right in the proposition of its policies, either because the right acts in an office seeking mode, either because the left has been "captured" by extra-parliamentary interests, or that the left differs, but keeping the maximization of economic growth as a priority. Thus, it is necessary to analyze, first, how ideology affects the regulatory aspects of a policy such as credit policy. As a case study, I will consider the proposal of credit policies in Brazil by PT, a center-left party, seeking similarities and differences with credit policies adopted by right-wing parties in Latin America in the same period. Beyond the policy design, however, it is also necessary to understand how the proposals were politicized, that is, what motivates the left in the adoption of credit policies. (AU)